WineXpert WE Speciale Peppermint Mocha

[Johnd]

Preordered two of these kits, they came in Friday. After pressing and racking the blueberries today, decided to kick off the double batch. Each kit comes with:
3 gallons juice
Bentonite
Toasted oak dust
2 packs EC 1118
Chaptalization pack
Flavor / syrup pack
Sorbate
KMS
Chitosan

By the time I got both kits into my 7.9 gallon fermenter, it was looking a little on the full side, but should be just fine.

Pitched the 4 yeast packs, SG at 1.121, plans say to chaptalize at 1.020, rack to glass at < 1.018, stabilize, clear and fpacks at <1.010. Let's see how low 1118 will go under that sugar load..........

 

[Johnd]

In another thread recently, there was discussion about how quickly we see visible signs of fermentation, ie., vigorous bubbling and CO2 release, mine normally in the 24-36 hour range. This stuff, with 4 packs of EC-1118 sprinkled on top, was absolutely rolling this morning after only 12 hours. Don't know when it started, didn't look at it after pitching last evening, but it was pretty quick. Obviously, with quadruple the starting yeast cells, it blew right through the lag phase and started making alcohol.

 

[Johnd]

Added the sugar boosting packets, dissolved in hot water, to the fermenter on 9/2/16, raised the SG from 1.020 up to 1.032. Snapped the lid on, air locked, and left for a weekend of work at the hunting property.

This morning, SG was at 1.010, racked to a carboy and air locked it. It was still for an hour or so, but now is starting to let off some CO2 and bubble again. AC is approaching 17%, hoping the EC 1118 can get me down below 1.000, lower it goes, less sweet it'll be after the fpacks are added.

 

[Johnd]

After a pretty long sit in glass, I decided to move this along, SG after fermentation was down to 1.000. That puts the final ABV in the 17.8% - 18.6%,
depending which fermcalc formula you pick. Averaging the whole lot puts it in the low 18's, good clean fermentation until death by the 1118.

Stirred up the sediment and siphoned off a gallon to make room for addition and hooked the vacuum pump to each vessel for a minute or so, gave up the CO2 very quickly. Added all chems, KMS, sorbate, and chitosan, as well as the fpacks. The fpacks smelled unbelievably good, it'll be interesting to see how it comes through in the completed wine.

After a little back and forth mixing to homogenize, ended up with a topped up carboy and a half gallon jug. Should be enough in the jug to top up after racking. This wine won't spend much time in carboy, after the next racking it'll get filtered coarse and then polished, then into bottling rotation.

 

[AZMDTed]

I made the Chocolate Raspberry on pretty much the same schedule. My ABV came out to about 17.8%. I had a full 750 ml bottle left over. Since there was no water addition I was trying to figure out if I did something wrong to come up so much left over. Sounds like it's just the way WE makes these dessert wines.

I stirred mine with a whip for about 6 minutes, the gas this thing put off was incredible. After six minutes I was still getting several inches of foam with each whipping so I put my vacuum pump on it and after adjusting the vacuum I was able to go from foamy small bubbles to bigger bubbles in about 9 minutes and hopefully finished off the gas in 11 minutes.

BTW, my lees were already an inch thick within an hour of adding the chitosan. The wine in the bottle didn't get any of the chitosan so it will have to drop the old fashioned way.

I agree about the smell of the F pack, mine was great. I'm not sure I want to know what they put in it to get the chocolate and raspberry flavor and smell, but I'll tell my wife that it's all natural

I still had a small glass left over so I let it sit in the fridge for about 5 hours and then took it out and let it come up to temp last night. It sips well, but it's got a lot of 'coming together' to do in aging.

 

[richmke]

How did the Peppermint Mocha end up? Do you have an SG reading after adding in the F-pack.

I just started the Peppermint Mocha (I had to wait for a carboy to free up). In the past, I add 1/3 of the f-pack up on day 2, and only 1/2 of the chap sugar. The f-pack up front minimizes the sorbate effect in the f-pack (sorbate has minimal effect when little alcohol is present). I usually end up with an ending SG around 1.02.

However, I noticed the peppermint in the chap sugar, so I am making it according to directions. I also usually fortify, so end up with 20% abv. I'm guessing by making it per directions, I will end up around 1.03 SG.

 

[Johnd]

How did the Peppermint Mocha end up? Do you have an SG reading after adding in the F-pack.

I just started the Peppermint Mocha (I had to wait for a carboy to free up). In the past, I add 1/3 of the f-pack up on day 2, and only 1/2 of the chap sugar. The f-pack up front minimizes the sorbate effect in the f-pack (sorbate has minimal effect when little alcohol is present). I usually end up with an ending SG around 1.02.

However, I noticed the peppermint in the chap sugar, so I am making it according to directions. I also usually fortify, so end up with 20% abv. I'm guessing by making it per directions, I will end up around 1.03 SG.

Mine didn't end up that high, just a tad over 1.010. It's pretty good, with the mocha and berry flavors being predominant. If I could do it over, I'd have left it in carboys longer, and added some peppermint flavor to it prior to bottling.